Article counting and filling



March 9, 1954 E E LAKSO 2,671,589

ARTICLE COUNTING AND FILLING l BY M,

March 9, 1954 E. E. LAKS@ 2,971,589

ARTICLE COUNTING AND FILLING n Original Filed Deo. 5, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 2" IN V EN TOR.

March 9, 1954 E, E, LAKS@ ARTICLE COUNTING AND FILLING 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Original Filed Deo. 5, 1946 y INVENTOR. E E'. abso- Patented Mar. 9, 1954 invention relates fto A`feeding, alining,

counting,delivering', 31nd packagingartieless such pas tableta-pills, Vcapsules,nut-s, andany-other 4smallarticles of similarnature.

Thezprinipal object of the inVention-isto -providehan automatic*maehineefore lling rvcpnta-i-r-rers with accurately counted andfundarnaged Varticles `at af rapid--rate from amass-o articles as. forinstance, delivered from a 'hopper or traveled von a `belt #'FurtherpbjectsQf the'invention residein the 'provision -of an automation-machine comprising meansefordelivering-a continuous and constant 'lflow of articles, meanstowaline the articles in @plurality .pf Ghutesin edge to edgeY ,aantasting relation; the iast'namedv-ineans including a ,mech- "anisrnffomprising alternate Axed and rotatable fingers-uponwhich-'the articles fall andbetween which lthe articles -are -alinedethe articles then Avproceeding toar plurality of chutes in which the articles are Y counted; `byautomatic means and in lsingle4 file thearticles are'lthen edeposited automatically rin containers traveled ,inrlineone after the other in adirection transverse Atojtlner individualchntesvand parallel toa heink of chutes.

yStill' furtherV objects o f- -the invention reside yin theprovision.` of anapparatus as above. described including vibrating means to shakejthecontainers--tosettle the contents thereof and new and improved stopping arrangementnso as toyposition bottles acouratelylnnder tllecnutes in cornbineiiqn ...with means :merma eenteinere :from chute to c lruteso` each chute ydeposits aj'ertain "freetien f' :the total' @entente 0f eaehleerrtainer vandas'the-'line of ontainershfmovesLone oo ntainer, erin multiples, issuefrem the.. machine in .filled Cmifn While. 116W CQHaDQlS ,Qnlfhe meehne. empletely empty giving. e. .Continuous automatic .anion .$01. that :the eentainers "issue, :imm .themeehinesillsly Qrinmultplee inpiilled condition.

. Dthe11-obie9tand.aeranteges ,9i the. i11venbi0n ,will .e peerhereislef .Bef rerrceiste..e 11asi totheeeeempannng ,drawings .,.whieh F.igf. .1 isa view. ,..11....s.ifle.. elevatien 0f .@maehne embodying ,the inventieil, ,.parts 1 being 'in .eeetion;

:Eia.2,; is" a viewin fre.1.vt...eler.atien ofthe., me- ,.rzeetsbeeain seetiemandmarts being b awey.: Fie Isa tennlan .with nertsemittedior the sake 't d literals e. .leerepeet a part of the device.

j=12efereneehisliereloy -made-ctoemy copendingap- 'plieation Senv 'No.f=64r1'-;561 fledfJ anuary .16,v .1946, new abandoned, edisolosing vamachine having .in general similar Aobjects' ofathe invention,y .thepres- 5 -er1tcase,howevfen-frepresenting4 a considerable ri1 npr@vementA overJ itl-1eA aforementioned e eopendinge case.

--'With reference tof-Figs. 1 and 2,-the present 4invention-comprises aff-iframe work fl 0--Which lbemounted; ona tableeonbaseframe not .shown Fnislframe-work-isyprovidedewith a bracket il2 vati fthe-supper portion thereofmwhich.` supports. a -1011 s ar-rollsA 't6-carrying -a conveyorl belt .JI 8 .in Atheclireetion of thearroweinfFigs.'v 2 :and 3. :The l5 articles -to-be` counted and filled; fprogress. along this kbeltbeingsimplied toa thefbelt as, rior instance; from -ahopper such asv disclosed -inmy ccpend-ing application rSer.A N o.` 54 137.92 lecL-J une 23, 1944. Arranged just above--the .top :run of 2o belt I8 there-is provided` anangularafence. 2i?, see Aparti(1u-1ark;l Blige 3,- this fence crowding the artielesnwa directiontowardA aj downwardly incli-ned apron w22 downl Whiehf-the -.pills=fal1 lin sub- -stantially--equal amounts from end toendlo the 2.3 apron, this steady t-iiovv of Ja1"tioles'in=4 uniform amountg-beingduato theangularity of: fencer. The frame -work t0 supports) atspaceol -points A*p illcwvfb looksA or bearings fvzdwrotatably mounting a s laaftfil onHWhiehUis-mounted a bruslt, shaft Q l? 6 fleeing@ drivenas,l vfor insta-Ime,loy` a .pulley .or ftheelilreer. '-eFr-ame'workwl;'also rotatably supp Qrtsa-shatf3fWliicn'may'be-driven by a sprocket chainefleitfbeing noted that Vthelor-ush Q8 .ref tates ceuntercloekwiseasi-seen. in LFig.- 1,11 and --shaft 3 llrotates ein 4tlqe-sa-zr-iedirection. 4 Shaftf Sil has secured thereto a-plurality ofv-wheelsrea'oh of gwhicn is provided With-a :narrow/peripheral rib 3'6 ,ftl-rese ribs;-l of-course, -rotating -at thev speed otshaftsB-il.

Mounted-ena A:fnernbere3l3-=supported on the Mframe worki J-etheref-al-'e a plurality Lof( yarcuate rfi-ngerserrilgs Mwhichareixed and stationary andf are madeeon anI-arcfftofeolosely'lfitthe pe- -riphery voftherm-reelsg Self-fingers '49f-being-alter `nately arranged-- inspaced-frelation 4with the yiin- ;gers i=ibs-'8'6-ontken/heels; this arrangement lbeing-clearly shown--inE-igsv'z andfi. lite-will thus ige seenf-thatfribs'SBA-rotate, andengerseorribs x"lr'arestationarily mounted;I and thepil-ls falling jdowjn apronf'fallnnpontheribs -36- andi til. y YSince 'itheee'ineers orribswere' bevel-Edin teva AV-ehape the telee gradually-shakedewn on their edges :between the: fingers.: as. .is ...clearlwillustrated ...'lliegbrush 28.l asitatesrthe artelesand. prevents them from piling up and spillingV over sothat any article which does not happen to fall down onto its edge will be thrown back by the brush as long as is necessary to nally cause such article to follow the others into edge to edge relation as above described.

It is to be particularly noted that the alternate fixed and rotating ribs 36 and 40 present alternate moving and stationary fingers so that the effect is similar to one in which the alternate fingers or ribs were rotating in opposite directions and it has been found that by making some of the ribs stationary and the others rotating in one direction the apparatus is considerably simplified and the alining effects are rendered in full.

The frame I also mounts a bracket or bar 42 upon which may be mounted a series of chute bars 44 down along which the articles A fall as by gravity, These chute bars are provided with face plates as at 46 to overlay the articles and prevent them from falling out to the left as seen in Fig. 1, the plates 46, however, being spaced so that the operator can easily determine whether or notthe chutes are full. Plates 46 have a tongue and groove aligning connection at 41 with curved plates 49 secured to the ends of ribs 40, and each plate 46 overlays two rows of articles A. Scraper blades I are secured to bracket 42 and extend into close scraping contact with the peripheries of wheels 34 between the ribs or fingers 36, 40, to form means taking the articles from the wheels, see Fig. 4. Each rib 36 is provided with a lateral channel-shapedY article guide 53 having a V cut therein to closely follow the rib contour to form the chute sides in combination with bars 44, and it will be seen that each chute is four sided and is formed by a bar 44, plate 46, blade 5|, and a leg of a channelshaped guide 53.

rIhe bar or bracket 42 also provides a guide for a spring pressed plunger 48, there being one of these plungers at each chute. Plungers 48 are pressed to the left in Fig. 1 as by means of a spring 58 and by means of a finger 52 the plungers are drawn to the right away from the articles A by means of a linkage 54 operating similarly to a like device in the first aforementioned of the copending applications. Further description of this finger is thought not to be necessary inasmuch as it is fully described in my copending case; however, the function of this finger is to come forwardly under resilient pressure of the spring at timed intervals to stop the articles above it from descending any lower and the purpose of this article-stopping device will be further described below.

At the bottom of the chute, I provide an oscillating bar 56 mounted to rock by means of a link 58 on a pin or pins 59, this link being in turn oscillated by a cam shown in dotted lines at 66 through the action of a lever 62. The bar 56 is provided with a series of pairs of converging chutes as most clearly seen in Fig. 2 at 64. Each pair of chutes is located to deposit two rows of articles in a single container 66 so that if ten articles are deposited on each chute at a time the result is that twenty articles are deposited at each operation through the agency of the double chutes in the bar 56. Bar 56 is actually a gate and as shown in Fig. 1 ten articles A are stopped by this gate between the latter and the fingers 48. Articles above the fingers 48 will be stopped thereby and as the gate 56 is oscillated to aline with chute 44 the ten articles shown in Fig. 1 will drop into container 66. It is to be understood, of course, that each time the gate oscillates a double row of articles descends into each of ten containers so that at each oscillation of gate 56 two hundred articles are deposited, twenty in each of ten containers 66. The angularity of chutes 64 as shown in Fig. 2 is due to the fact that the containers 66 may be of a width wider than necessary for the construction of all of the chutes in the machine and if necessary this gate may be replaced by one having chutes at different angles for thinner or narrower containers.

The containers 66 are progressed parallel to the bank of chutes 44 in step by step relation on a conveyor belt 68 and it will be seen that as each bottle issues from the right-hand end of the machine as shown in Fig. 2, such bottle will be filled with two hundred pills if the bottles progress from the station to station, i. e., chute to chute, as defined, or with one hundred pills if the bottles advance at each step two stations, skipping every other station and receiving twenty articles at each of five stations. In the latter case, the containers are advanced and ejected in pairs.

In order to stop and properly position the containers I provide a stopping device, see Fig. 3, which comprises a pair of bars 10 having arms 12 at the ends thereof. These bars are pivoted at 14, see Fig. 1, and are spring pressed apart by a spring 16 below the pivots so as to force the arms 12 inwardly toward each other to stop a desired number of bottles in two banks. The arms are separated in order to allow the bottles to advance by a bellcrank 18 operated by cam 60. The two arms 10 operate simultaneously to be withdrawn from each other due to a pin and slot connection as shown at 19, that is, there being a slot in one arm between the pivots 14 and a pin on the other arm so that as one arm is rocked away from the containers the other arm is similarly rocked in the opposite direction also from the containers, this operation being in timed relation to the rest of the device.

This stopping mechanism may be moved to the right or left in Fig. 2 by means of a thumb screw to allow for manufacturing variation in thicknesses of containers and it will be seen from Fig. 2 that the arms 12 extend through slots 82 in guides 84 which confine the containers to an in-line progress.

I also provide an oscillating means for shaking the articles down in the containers. 'Ihis means comprises a pair of plates 86 positioned as a continuation of guides 84 and connected to a base 88 which is pivotally mounted at 90 and is oscillated by a crank 92, see Fig. 1. This vibration is intended to be very rapid and of short stroke so that the contents of the containers are not damaged nor jostled to too great a degree, but are merely slightly vibrated in order to settle the same in the containers.

The conveyor 68 is continuous, and when the line of containers is stopped to receive the articles, the passing conveyor imparts a vibration to the containers not included between the stop arms 12, so that a preliminary shake-down occurs prior to the vibration by means 86.

The operation of the device will be clear from the above description taken in conjunction with the drawings, and the inventor will be seen to provide a relatively simplied device for aligning articles fed thereto in haphazard position, counting the aligned articles, and depositing the required amount in a row of passing containers,

5 the action being completely automatic from start to nish.

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 714,236, led December 5, 1946, now Patent No. 2,585,558.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, I do not Wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, otherwise than as set forth in the claim, but what I claim is:

In a device of the class described, a continuous conveyor for a line of containers, article chutes, means to stop the line of containers at timed intervals to receive articles from the chutes while leaving the containers free and unsecured, said stop means comprising a pair of spaced elements to stop two spaced containers, thereby stopping a group and leaving a space between the last container of the group and the first container next after the group, said continuous conveyor vibrating the containers during stopped periods 6 thereof by running along under and in contact with the containers, and means for additionally vibrating the grouped containers laterally with respect to the line of feed of the containers.

EINO E. LAKSO.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

